Coronavirus - COVID-19

[sweeterthan]

That is awesome! Congrats! Weirdly enough, I was totally hoping this exact thing would happen to me.

Instead, I lost the job I was interviewing for because the hiring manager basically said "What's the point with all of this going on? Everything changes for us now." I also lost my current gig, which was systems programming and bartending in a restaurant that's closed now. Thanks to the tipped component, unemployment wages will be paltry, though thankfully they'll exist.

My wife probably lost her job for next semester (adjunct professor, as she completes doctoral dissertation odds and ends and defense; until that's done she can't secure a full-time position there) and, thanks to that limbo state she's in, we definitely lose our medical insurance in eight weeks, since that's when her candidacy funding runs out.

We were also supposed to finally move from the horrible town we've been stuck in for years (to that gig she was headed to work for), which may or may not happen on schedule or at all now. Leaving us with precisely 0 jobs and 0 healthcare in the next two months. The state insurance system that's left post-Trump, as I'm sure a lot of you know, is a fucking joke.

Both of my sisters are immunocompromised; my brother-in-law is a diabetic with a respiratory condition; her grandmother is 95 and has like half a lung left.

Ooh, also, after the last two weeks of working eight hours a day with young college students fresh off of winter vacations back home or with traveling businesspeople and tourists, my wife and I, respectively, are both newly sick. Which is rather alarming, though we don't have fevers, so we assume we're not coronified.

Sooo...doing my best not to lose my shit right now. I was already about as depressed as I've been in years, the primary cause being — wait for it — feeling like I had no agency in my own life.

Super thankful we don't have children or parents. Super thankful we've been able to save up some money the past few years. Super thankful we're introverts, so isolation isn't terrible. Things are absolutely not half as bad as they could be. It's actually going okay. But fuck, this is not a great time.

I couldn't sleep, so I scrolled through this thread to see how good ol' ETS was faring. I'm sorry to hear everyone's stories. @richardp, thanks for everything you do and I hope someone does something to fix what happened to your part-timers, what's happening to your Program attendees, and that your life destresses at least a little sometime soon. @Mantra, I feel ya and hope you're already on the mend. @chuckrh, I hope the R.A. situation clears up and that someone maybe pulls a test from the next fucking asymptomatic celebrity that feels like "it's the safest thing to do" and sends it to you. @allegate, I have no idea who the blue fuck, in relation to you, the person in the Tweet was, but I hope to hell Mariott gets what it deserves and so (in a much better fashion) does the person who got the "Zero Hour Schedule." @Bachy, When people started hoarding last Monday, I was like, "This is stupid. Why would that be your first priority?" Then I noticed we were down to one roll of TP. I went to the store the next day and they were out, so I was like, "This is stupid. Meh, they'll have more tomorrow." We got our first roll yesterday morning at 6:00. I hope you got yours! @ManBurning, I hope your boss gets his head out of his ass. That's goddamned horrible. I hope you get to get out of the office with your paycheck intact ASAP. And @sweeterthan, I think your fridge actually got fixed? At least I hope it did. I can't imagine a worse time for that shit to happen.

I hope everyone else stays healthy and that no one is doing anything stupidly risky, if not for themselves, for the rest of everyone. Fingers crossed we'll all get through this in decent economic, medical, and emotional shape.

My fridge is fixed yay! Now to try to find groceries to buy.
Sorry you are dealing with so much. I’m thinking of everyone’s whose jobs are affected.

As more cases appear, I know we are doing the right thing but it’s still really hard to comprehend how long this could go on.

Edit: glad to see people are being tested. I hope all of you stay well.

[allegate]

the place I work for is having a meeting tomorrow that will not have a call-in number. if you want to hear the announcement, they are mandating you to come to the meeting room to hear it. the meeting room is not big enough to social distance everyone who is in the office. wtf are they thinking? first thought is "he's going to say something that he doesn't want recorded" since there's no phone lines.

[theimage13]

the place I work for is having a meeting tomorrow that will not have a call-in number. if you want to hear the announcement, they are mandating you to come to the meeting room to hear it. the meeting room is not big enough to social distance everyone who is in the office. wtf are they thinking? first thought is "he's going to say something that he doesn't want recorded" since there's no phone lines.

Time to set your phone on record before you go into the meeting.

[richardp]

Bit of good news today. My day program was FINALLY given the okay by the company to shut down. As of right now, we're closed until April 1, but I'm guessing that will get pushed back. Not entirely sure what finally made them change their minds but thank fuck they did. Moments before the phone call came in from the higher ups, we literally had to send one of our people home for potentially being sick. This dude is legit one of my favorites there too, and he has downs syndrome so I was already terrified of his immune system with this, and poor guy was sweating bullets this morning. I'm so fucking worried.

But that also means that its good timing for me to legit isolate myself for a while and hope the best. Not even remotely trying to think about not getting paid indefinitely, but this at least was a welcome weight lifted off my chest.

Really fucking hope none of us on here get it. I'm pulling for each and every one of you. I've been posting since '07 so this board feels like a family in a way. Just really really fucking hope everyone is safe and we all just ride this out unscathed passing times endlessly ranking albums in the music section. Let's all try to make a point to post more in Random Stupidity too, because lord knows we're going to need some random humor.

[allegate]

Time to set your phone on record before you go into the meeting.

lol. I decided to not attend because a) I'm not an idiot and b) my boss told me what the meeting is about so eh. psst - it's about social distancing and working from home. *shakes head*

[Dryalex12]

God, what is going on with the political party on this day alone? shits crazy

[Bachy]

I never wished a case of unrecoverable alcohol poisoning on anyone as much as I am now:

[theimage13]

I never wished a case of unrecoverable alcohol poisoning on anyone as much as I am now:

If I was that little shit's grandma, I'd get his mom to call him and say "grandma's got it, she's in the hospital now...you need to get here ASAP". Teach his stupid bitch ass a lesson about empathy.

[Sarah K]

Welp, the first person being held at Rikers has tested positive. This is about to turn into an absolute disaster there. Maybe someone can give it Weinstein before he gets transferred, though.

Edit - And Tuesday morning, the confirmed cases in NYC had passed 800. Tonight we are at 1,871.

[ickyvicky]

Chase Bank is going to close 20% of its banks throughout the nation starting tomorrow (3/19) - call your local bank before going to make sure it's not closed.

[chuckrh]

Chase Bank is going to close 20% of its banks throughout the nation starting tomorrow (3/19) - call your local bank before going to make sure it's not closed.

there will only be about 8000 branches open then

[Erneuert]

Been reminded of this a lot lately.



Besides, what do you think you have an immune system for? It’s for killing germs! But it needs practice... it needs germs to practice on. So listen! If you kill all the germs around you, and live a completely sterile life, then when germs do come along, you’re not gonna be prepared. And never mind ordinary germs, what are you gonna do when some super virus comes along that turns your vital organs into liquid shit? I’ll tell you what you’re gonna do... you’re gonna get sick, you’re gonna die, and you’re gonna deserve it cause you’re fucking weak and you got a fucking weak immune system!

[Haysey_Draws]

A another day in London. Schools will close tomorrow, tube lines are being closed, people have been advised to work from home if they can...and my company STILL expects everyone in. It's full office...again. Only people that can work from home are those that have either been in contact with someone with the virus or are ill, everyone else has to be in even though we all can work from home...it's nuts!

...people are getting really angry, it makes it worse that both of the directors are now on annual leave...

[Tom]

I'm expecting London lockdown tomorrow, so you might be able to stay in from then.

[Haysey_Draws]

I'm expecting that too, but i have zero confidence in how our company will handle it. Moral here is now rock bottom. There are people in the office with s/o's who have been told they need to self isolate or are vulnerable persons and they are being put at risk by us having to come in...and our HR dept are basically saying in each case "we'll let you know in due course"...it worry's me they'll turn around at the lock down and say we're all on reduced wages or worse...

[chuckrh]

I'm expecting that too, but i have zero confidence in how our company will handle it. Moral here is now rock bottom. There are people in the office with s/o's who have been told they need to self isolate or are vulnerable persons and they are being put at risk by us having to come in...and our HR dept are basically saying in each case "we'll let you know in due course"...it worry's me they'll turn around at the lock down and say we're all on reduced wages or worse...

I had to take an early disability retirement from a huge aerospace company in seattle last august. the doctors had wanted me to for 5 years but i kept going as long as i could. for once in my life, good timing on that one! I have a friend who still works there & everyone is very nervous about layoffs. in part due to unfortunate events a year ago the stock is in the dumpster & the current economic crisis things are bad. put a lot of it on upper management. they've been using cash reserves to buy back stock to keep the price up. not a sustainable model. now it appears they are looking to the government to bail them out. really glad i got out when i did.

[Haysey_Draws]

I had to take an early disability retirement from a huge aerospace company in seattle last august. the doctors had wanted me to for 5 years but i kept going as long as i could. for once in my life, good timing on that one! I have a friend who still works there & everyone is very nervous about layoffs. in part due to unfortunate events a year ago the stock is in the dumpster & the current economic crisis things are bad. put a lot of it on upper management. they've been using cash reserves to buy back stock to keep the price up. not a sustainable model. now it appears they are looking to the government to bail them out. really glad i got out when i did.

I'm glad you got out when you did, and i hope your doing OK in this crisis?

With regard to my company, financially we should be OK. I'm solely in-charge of the invoices out and making sure things are paid, and we're in the best position we've ever been in the 9 years i've been here. Last year we started getting yearly bonuses things are going so well, and i know this financial year we've done even better and aged debt is non existent. Couple that with 2 of our major clients being supermarket chains who are currently making hand over fist we should be OK. We can continue to work at home as well, it will just be a bit annoying, but money will still be coming in (which is what i will be doing from home, making sure the money is coming in) which makes it all the more confusing as to why they are being so slow and quiet about getting us to work from home. As it stands only management have the OK to work remotely, the rest of us, while we can do it, need the OK before we can...and they just do not want to give it...and it's got EVERYONE in the office on edge!

[chuckrh]

I'm glad you got out when you did, and i hope your doing OK in this crisis?

With regard to my company, financially we should be OK. I'm solely in-charge of the invoices out and making sure things are paid, and we're in the best position we've ever been in the 9 years i've been here. Last year we started getting yearly bonuses things are going so well, and i know this financial year we've done even better and aged debt is non existent. Couple that with 2 of our major clients being supermarket chains who are currently making hand over fist we should be OK. We can continue to work at home as well, it will just be a bit annoying, but money will still be coming in (which is what i will be doing from home, making sure the money is coming in) which makes it all the more confusing as to why they are being so slow and quiet about getting us to work from home. As it stands only management have the OK to work remotely, the rest of us, while we can do it, need the OK before we can...and they just do not want to give it...and it's got EVERYONE in the office on edge!

I'm hanging on. Earlier on this thread I posted about getting tested for the virus yesterday. I haven't been well for awhile but the situation with test kits in the states is still bad. I went pitbull on it & got the test finally. Results due back Monday or Tuesday. I've been doing the shelter in place for over 2 weeks & doctor told me to continue to do so until results are back. Sorry to all if I'm redundant. Middle of the night in Seattle & I can't sleep because of pain issues. Hoping to get a bit more sleep. I hope your company wakes up to the severity of this before a lot of people in your office get infected & they take the high road in regards to leaves & working from home. Now is not the time to place business over actual people!

[Conan The Barbarian]

I'm hanging on. Earlier on this thread I posted about getting tested for the virus yesterday. I haven't been well for awhile but the situation with test kits in the states is still bad. I went pitbull on it & got the test finally. Results due back Monday or Tuesday. I've been doing the shelter in place for over 2 weeks & doctor told me to continue to do so until results are back. Sorry to all if I'm redundant. Middle of the night in Seattle & I can't sleep because of pain issues. Hoping to get a bit more sleep. I hope your company wakes up to the severity of this before a lot of people in your office get infected & they take the high road in regards to leaves & working from home. Now is not the time to place business over actual people!

When you say pitbull, did you mean you went out and yelled “ Dalé!” ?

[Haysey_Draws]

I'm hanging on. Earlier on this thread I posted about getting tested for the virus yesterday. I haven't been well for awhile but the situation with test kits in the states is still bad. I went pitbull on it & got the test finally. Results due back Monday or Tuesday. I've been doing the shelter in place for over 2 weeks & doctor told me to continue to do so until results are back. Sorry to all if I'm redundant. Middle of the night in Seattle & I can't sleep because of pain issues. Hoping to get a bit more sleep. I hope your company wakes up to the severity of this before a lot of people in your office get infected & they take the high road in regards to leaves & working from home. Now is not the time to place business over actual people!

Holy shit i'm sorry my issues pale at what your going through. I hope the results come back negative just to give you a little pace of mind!

[dlb]

There we go. My toilet paper is running low and I couldn't find any for two weeks now. This is interesting. Guess Kleenex will have to do...

And how crazy is that? Stereophonics played for 20.000 people in Manchester earlier this week? Jesus, Great Britain doesn't seem to really care.

Meanwhile our boss insists that we keep the agency going and he is "proud" of us how "well" we oppose Corona against all odds. Yeah, thanks for risking everybody's health and not letting us do home office like 90% of our clients, dude! Good job! Unbelievable... Yet I see a shocking number of people, and most of all elderly people, walking outside, gathering at public places and beergardens. People really do like their nice weather, despite sitting on their couches for the majority of their lives... once something is forbidden, it gets interesting, I guess.

"What? I have to stay inside? I planned on getting back to sports for many years and now would be the perfect time! Damn!"

[Haysey_Draws]

Right think i have sussed out what the fuck is going on with my office...

Our company is a large group made up of a handful of smaller groups. Ours is security. Unlike the other groups we're our own limited company and separate from the group (we have our own bonuses for example as we make a better profit) but are still ruled by the group overall.

We, as in security, have the means to to almost completely work remotely. This is due to my old boss (who is now a group director) pushed for us to go paperless. Everything we do now is almost exclusively done on the network, and as such any shut down wouldn't stop us from largely being able to operate...but the group is a different story.

When my old boss moved up to director of the Group he tried to get them to go paperless and they flat out refused. We have a good retention of employees, and a lot of them do not like change. So when someone is trying to change how they have been running for 20 years they really threw their toys out. As a result the group, which includes stuff like payroll, CANNOT work from home. If the office shut up shop tomorrow they'd not be able to run...and we're being punished for their fucking stubbornness to change with the times! Despite all the hard work we've done we're going to get fucked over by a bunch of people too set in their ways to change with the times...and to make it worse we HAVE to listen to them as a group. We can't just say we're working from home, because the rest of the building will go "hold on why can they go home and we can't?!"

...for fucks sake!

[chuckrh]

When you say pitbull, did you mean you went out and yelled “ Dalé!” ?

There used to be a maxim in the office: "don't f with the c"! 1 of my co workers dubbed me the warrior poet in honour of some emails i sent out whilst pissed off. innocuous on the surface & seemingly diplomatic. between the lines was an entirely different matter....

[allegate]

I had to take an early disability retirement from a huge aerospace company in seattle last august. the doctors had wanted me to for 5 years but i kept going as long as i could. for once in my life, good timing on that one! I have a friend who still works there & everyone is very nervous about layoffs. in part due to unfortunate events a year ago the stock is in the dumpster & the current economic crisis things are bad. put a lot of it on upper management. they've been using cash reserves to buy back stock to keep the price up. not a sustainable model. now it appears they are looking to the government to bail them out. really glad i got out when i did.

I can almost figure it out, I just need a few more clues!

[paul_is_dead]

[allegate]

[allegate]

https://ourplagueyear.libsyn.com/

A new podcast from one half of Welcome to Night Vale. It's personal but there are stories from other people as well. Cory Doctorow is on the first episode and has a great quote:

It is not dystopian to imagine a crisis. It is dystopian to imagine that in its aftermath, we will all reveal ourselves to have been secret, barely constrained monsters who were only waiting for civilization to hit pause before we started eating each other.

[eachpassingphase]

My state had its first death from COVID. Somebody in their 50's. I'm guessing they had other health issues already, because that seems YOUNG.

[allegro]

My state had its first death from COVID. Somebody in their 50's. I'm guessing they had other health issues already, because that seems YOUNG.

Nope.

To those idiots on the beach, see below CDC report issued March 18, 2020:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/...cid=mm6912e2_w

As of March 16, a total of 4,226 COVID-19 cases had been reported in the United States, with reports increasing to 500 or more cases per day beginning March 14 (Figure 1). Among 2,449 patients with known age, 6% were aged ≥85, 25% were aged 65–84 years, 18% each were aged 55–64 years and 45–54 years, and 29% were aged 20–44 years. Only 5% of cases occurred in persons aged 0–19 years.

Among 508 (12%) patients known to have been hospitalized, 9% were aged ≥85 years, 26% were aged 65–84 years, 17% were aged 55–64 years, 18% were 45–54 years, and 20% were aged 20–44 years. Less than 1% of hospitalizations were among persons aged ≤19 years (Figure 2). The percentage of persons hospitalized increased with age, from 2%–3% among persons aged ≤9 years, to ≥31% among adults aged ≥85 years.

Among 121 patients known to have been admitted to an ICU, 7% of cases were reported among adults ≥85 years, 46% among adults aged 65–84 years, 36% among adults aged 45–64 years, and 12% among adults aged 20–44 years. No ICU admissions were reported among persons aged ≤19 years. Percentages of ICU admissions were lowest among adults aged 20–44 years (2%–4%) and highest among adults aged 75–84 years (11%–31%).

Among 44 cases with known outcome, 15 (34%) deaths were reported among adults aged ≥85 years, 20 (46%) among adults aged 65–84 years, and nine (20%) among adults aged 20–64 years. Case-fatality percentages increased with increasing age, from no deaths reported among persons aged ≤19 years to highest percentages (10%–27%) among adults aged ≥85 years.

[Jinsai]

I'm mostly concerned about my parents. They're not in a good position to handle this thing.

I wanna punch that Florida beach dickhead so bad.